Sources: Major update as Tottenham under pressure to abandon £320m deal
It is highly unlikely that Tottenham will bow to political pressure and ditch front-of-shirt sponsor AIA, industry sources have told Football Insider.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong has written to Spurs chairman and co-owner Daniel Levy asking him to reconsider the club’s relationship with the life insurance firm.
AIA publicly supports Hong Kong’s national security law introduced by the Chinese Communist Party in June 2020 with the ostensible aim of bringing about stability amid pro-democracy demonstrations.
But campaigners, including human rights group Amnesty International, argue that the bill has been used to curb freedom of expression and the right to protest in the region.
There is an abundance of recent precedents for clubs severing ties with companies affiliated with authoritarian regimes.
Man United dropped state-backed airline Aeroflot as a sponsor in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, while UK Government sanctions forced oligarch Alisher Usmanov to end his commercial relationship with Everton.
But a source with internal knowledge of the sponsorship market has told Football Insider that Spurs are unlikely to break off an alliance which has been in place since 2013 and is worth £320m over its current eight-year contract.
Early termination fees would apply unless Spurs’ legal team are able to argue that AIA’s stance on Hong Kong’s national security law represents a breach of contract, which it is understood is improbable.
The role of ethics in Premier League clubs’ commercial dealings has never been higher on the agenda given the ownership structures of Man City and Newcastle United.
The pair receive direct investment from the governments of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia respectively, both of whom are accused of similar human rights violations.
In other news, Tottenham respond to Super League relaunch plot.